Old Model Swiss Commercial #513

[Dwight Gruber]

Originally Posted by spacecoast

…G&S project the following timeline by serial number:

Q1/1901 - Swiss Military 1-200 and Commercial 1-200
Q2/1901 - Swiss Military 200-400 and Commercial 200-400
Q2-3/1901 - Swiss Military 400-600 and Commercial 400-1000
Q3-4/1901 - Commercial 1000-5000
Q4/1901 - Swiss Military 600-1800 and 597E-610E

The 5,000 guns of the initial Swiss Military contract were not finished until 1904 (according to G&S). By the end of 1905, all of the Old Models were completed (30,000 or a little more) - in the first 5 years of production. This would support ~100 per week, but was backloaded to 1902-05 as they got better at it and numbered fewer parts.

Sturgess’s serial number conclusions should be viewed with scepticism. Notwithstanding his fantastic “out of sequence” serial numbering theories, even his own assertions are inconsistent from section to section of his book (compare the table above to his table of “Established Dates” on p.315, red edition). Sturgess’s own text contradicts the above table, when he asserts that commercial Parabellum production did not begin until after the first 600 gun of the Swiss contract were delivered (I haven’t been able to retrieve the direct citation, still looking).

A systematic production timeline is much less cut-and-dried. The Parabellum was accepted by the Swiss on May 4 1900, and the production order was confirmed in August 1900. This is the absolute start date of any possible Pistole Parabellum production.

According to Sturgess’s documentation production pistols were inspected (with some rejects) between Feb. 1901 and the first 600 pistol delivery in June 1901, but his presentation is too confused to tease out an actual production sequence. Estimates of a starting date or early production numbers of commercial Parabellums must be purely conjectural.

What can be said, is that between the beginning of commercial production and October 1901 there were at least 6,167 produced. Sn 6167 is the lowest documented Bannerman test eagle serial number; these pistols were delivered on Oct. 26, 1901. The U.S. test delivery was split into two parts—correspondence between DWM’s agent Hans Tauscher and the U.S. Army indicates the second shipment had to wait until pistol production was completed.

Although Old Model production carries on through Bulgrian, carbine, and short-frame pistols, there are no actual associated production dates on record. Even the short frame test pistols and Powell cartridge-counters are known by delivery or test year rather than actual production.

The end of Old Model production can most likely be dated to late 1904. Sturgess asserts the French transitional and the navy P04 carry trials pistols (both Old Model frame types) to be concurrent production; the navy pistols were ready for trials by August, 1904.

The highest Old Model serial numbers reported are a carbine sn 25032 and a French transitional sn 25035. The first delivery of the new model production navy P04 was March 1906; New Model commercial production could not have occurred before that, and commercial production carried on with the earliest reported sn 25056.

Therefore, DWM underwent a 19 month production hiatus after August , 1904. It is true that DWM provided pistols for various military trials after that date, but these had already been manufactured, and perhaps modified for the purpose.

I wouldn’t go so far as to estimate a production number per week, there are too many possible variables.

“…backloaded to 1902-05 as they got better at it and numbered fewer parts…” I don’t understand your meaning here. And what parts did they stop numbering?

--Dwight